~ Fides, Scientia, et Pertinacio

The Bottomless Pit: Where is the Abousso?

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit – Revelation 20:1-3a

The Bible makes mention several times of “The Abyss” or Abousso in the Greek. The ancient Hebrew scholars wrote and believed that the Abyss, or what is elsewhere called the bottomless pit, was located in the center of the earth.

Of course, when we consider that the ancients associated the Abousso with the heart of the earth, its easy to shrug that off as primitive hokum from simpletons based on superstition.

But is it?

We know from Scripture that the Abyss is a real place that even the demons recognize. For instance, in their exchange with Jesus in Luke Chapter 8:31:

“And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.”

We see throughout Scripture, that of the many references to “the grave” or “Sheol” it is associated or thought of as being “down” or in the “depths.”

We first see the mention of the word for the abyss in the creation account when we read in Genesis Chapter 1 that: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep (abousso). And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

As we question the locality of the bottomless pit, let’s consider an old riddle:

A group of hunters found and followed bear tracks 10 miles south from camp. They followed the tracks 10 miles to the west, where they shot and killed the bear. Then, they traveled 10 miles north where they brought the bear back to camp to skin it.

Question: What color was the bear?

Answer: White

The reason that the answer is “white” is because the only place where you can travel 10 miles south, 10 miles west, and 10 miles north and wind up back where you started is at the North Pole. Therefore, the bear is white since it’s a Polar Bear!

The geometry of the riddle points out that from some points, all directions are the same. All directions from the south pole are north. All directions from the north pole are south.

Therefore, if you think about it logically as well as geometrically, where is the only place that you could have a bottomless pit?

Answer: At the center of a sphere, since at that point, all directions are up!

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. – Revelation 17:8